Networks of cooperation and career opportunities in German universities: the road to professorship in psychological science

From a life-course theoretical perspective, university careers may not only depend on performance & productivity, but also on characteristics of cooperation & professional networks. Building on an extensive archive analysis we investigated university careers of four cohorts of German psychologists, who obtained their doctoral degree in the years 1980/81 & 1985/86 (N = 579). Data were obtained from public reference archives (eg, PSYCHLit), a German yearbook of psychologists (Hogrefe publishers), & the Internet. In addition to university positions & characteristics of institutes, we generated information on the size, density, & productivity of cooperation networks. Findings indicate that attainment of a professor position depends on individual productivity as well as on cooperation networks. In particular, the size of university institutes (at the time when finishing the dissertation work) & the density of coauthor networks proved as strongest predictors of tenured professorship. The findings strongly underscore the important role of network management in the course of professional careers. 4 Tables, 1 Appendix, 21 References. Adapted from the source document.